Chrysler to export Jeeps at long vacant Portsmouth port

PORTSMOUTH — A long line of 700 Jeeps sat parked in a lot under an overpass in Portsmouth on a recent afternoon.

The vehicles had been moved by train from a Toledo, Ohio, plant where Chrysler manufactures Wranglers and Cherokees. They arrived on March 30 at a Norfolk Southern Corp. rail yard.

This week they were driven to the long-vacant Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Near the end of the month dockworkers will load them on a car-carrying ship bound for China.

PMT has been the subject of various commercial ideas: a pulp and paper warehouse, a wood pellet export business, a grain-handling facility.

None of those have come to fruition as of yet.

But a freshly inked deal announced Friday means that for at least six months, the Virginia Port Authority facility will be a car export terminal.

"This is a good first step of providing a 'proof of concept' to bring business back to PMT," said John Reinhart, VPA's new executive director, who also hinted at other opportunities for the Portsmouth facility.

"There is a lot of opportunity at PMT for the right users and this is one," he said.